Changes

I was never a big fanfic author because I preferred to write original works. I participated as mostly a reader. I enjoyed discussions about interpretations of shows, about writing, etc--and those are much rarer now. They still happen--people still make them work--but I feel like a lot of the socialization is moving to a different model that is ... less geared toward creating communities, finding friends, etc. <ref> {{cite web|url = http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |title = It's a Fanmade World |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318133628/http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |archivedate = 2015-03-18 }}, comment at MetaFilter by Kutsuwamushi , March 2015 </ref>}}

I was never a big fanfic author because I preferred to write original works. I participated as mostly a reader. I enjoyed discussions about interpretations of shows, about writing, etc--and those are much rarer now. They still happen--people still make them work--but I feel like a lot of the socialization is moving to a different model that is ... less geared toward creating communities, finding friends, etc. <ref> {{cite web|url = http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |title = It's a Fanmade World |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318133628/http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |archivedate = 2015-03-18 }}, comment at MetaFilter by Kutsuwamushi , March 2015 </ref>}}

{{Quotation|I was never a fanfiction writer, but I was part of the [[Gargoyles]] fandom back in the Station8 days (1997-2002 or so), when the community was a few hundred outspoken people and who-knows-how-many lurkers. Most of us knew each other at least socially in online circles, and many of us actually met in person (turns out I went to jr. high with two other very active members of that community, ha). At least one of the creatives behind the thing we were fans of was aware of / participating in the community. The idea of a community that tightly-knit on the modern net is more or less impossible just due to scale -- a couple of hundred people is maybe a niche in a niche in a niche, and who-knows-how-many of these communities are running in parallel. It's open to a larger world, but it also feels larger and more impersonal.  <ref> {{cite web|url = http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |title = It's a Fanmade World |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318133628/http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |archivedate = 2015-03-18 }}, comment at MetaFilter by Alterscape, March 2015 </ref>}}

{{Quotation|I was never a fanfiction writer, but I was part of the [[Gargoyles]] fandom back in the [[Station8]] days (1997-2002 or so), when the community was a few hundred outspoken people and who-knows-how-many lurkers. Most of us knew each other at least socially in online circles, and many of us actually met in person (turns out I went to jr. high with two other very active members of that community, ha). At least one of the creatives behind the thing we were fans of was aware of / participating in the community. The idea of a community that tightly-knit on the modern net is more or less impossible just due to scale -- a couple of hundred people is maybe a niche in a niche in a niche, and who-knows-how-many of these communities are running in parallel. It's open to a larger world, but it also feels larger and more impersonal.  <ref> {{cite web|url = http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |title = It's a Fanmade World |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150318133628/http://www.metafilter.com/147962/Its-a-Fanmade-World |archivedate = 2015-03-18 }}, comment at MetaFilter by Alterscape, March 2015 </ref>}}

{{Quotation2|Rue72: Mostly I feel like nothing that I have to say or create is of any interest to current fandom communities; that we've moved even more completely into an "OOOH SHINEY!" instant-gratification kind of place, and that the smaller little weirdo pockets have been squeezed out by whatever the dominant conversation/ship/joke/etc happens to be.

{{Quotation2|Rue72: Mostly I feel like nothing that I have to say or create is of any interest to current fandom communities; that we've moved even more completely into an "OOOH SHINEY!" instant-gratification kind of place, and that the smaller little weirdo pockets have been squeezed out by whatever the dominant conversation/ship/joke/etc happens to be.

{{Quotation2| Tumblr culture has a LOT of serious problems and I'm pretty sure it's self-destructing--but we can't talk, [[LJ]] self-destructed too, and we tore each other apart bloody before we did it. I loved LJ fandom like my own family, but I remember a lot of the same culture of ruling fear and mass [[bullying]] that goes on on tumblr from there too--that goes back at least to the 80s and [['zine]] culture, where you even had to be "sponsored" by someone at a con to be taken seriously. We started [[Social Justice|SJ]] on LJ, not tumblr--I remember early iterations going back to around 2002-03, it got serious in around 2007, and became impossible to ignore in 2009. So it had been steadily building up until tumblr got started, and many initially went to tumblr to get AWAY from the constant guiltmongering and finger-pointing. If you recall, [[DREAMWIDTH]] was originally considered the "[[special snowflake]]" haven! My old [[flist]] on LJ was all, "Oh, we'll never move to [[Dreamwidth]], all they care about is talking about disability and alternate sexualities there." Then they all did...or went to tumblr, or focused on their offline lives. My point is, the culture's always had issues, it's always been in flux, it's always cannibalized one community after another because it's never been stable, fandom always aspires to goodness while the means we attempt to reach this end is mostly bullying each other [[Snacky's Law|like the mean girls in high school]], and we always claim the moral high ground while doing this--hell, the [[Godawful Fanfic]] archive in 1998 claimed it was helping the authors it mocked behind their backs with "useful [[crit]]." Everything people are whining about with tumblr is nothing new, but an evolution of the culture we already had, that was already poisoning itself but we were too young and naive and happy to find our tribe to see it. <ref> {{source|url = http://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/131867.html?thread=686760731#cmt686760731 |title = fail_fandomanon |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211207164436/https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/131867.html?thread=686760731 |archivedate = 2021-12-07 }}, April 2015 </ref>}}

{{Quotation2| Tumblr culture has a LOT of serious problems and I'm pretty sure it's self-destructing--but we can't talk, [[LJ]] self-destructed too, and we tore each other apart bloody before we did it. I loved LJ fandom like my own family, but I remember a lot of the same culture of ruling fear and mass [[bullying]] that goes on on tumblr from there too--that goes back at least to the 80s and [['zine]] culture, where you even had to be "sponsored" by someone at a con to be taken seriously. We started [[Social Justice|SJ]] on LJ, not tumblr--I remember early iterations going back to around 2002-03, it got serious in around 2007, and became impossible to ignore in 2009. So it had been steadily building up until tumblr got started, and many initially went to tumblr to get AWAY from the constant guiltmongering and finger-pointing. If you recall, [[DREAMWIDTH]] was originally considered the "[[special snowflake]]" haven! My old [[flist]] on LJ was all, "Oh, we'll never move to [[Dreamwidth]], all they care about is talking about disability and alternate sexualities there." Then they all did...or went to tumblr, or focused on their offline lives. My point is, the culture's always had issues, it's always been in flux, it's always cannibalized one community after another because it's never been stable, fandom always aspires to goodness while the means we attempt to reach this end is mostly bullying each other [[Snacky's Law|like the mean girls in high school]], and we always claim the moral high ground while doing this--hell, the [[Godawful Fanfic]] archive in 1998 claimed it was helping the authors it mocked behind their backs with "useful [[crit]]." Everything people are whining about with tumblr is nothing new, but an evolution of the culture we already had, that was already poisoning itself but we were too young and naive and happy to find our tribe to see it. <ref> {{source|url = http://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/131867.html?thread=686760731#cmt686760731 |title = fail_fandomanon |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211207164436/https://fail-fandomanon.dreamwidth.org/131867.html?thread=686760731 |archivedate = 2021-12-07 }}, April 2015 </ref>}}

{{Quotation| I also am fascinated by Tumblr culture and how it’s changing fandom and online interactions.  Tumblr has its pros and cons but I love how it allows for rapid creation. For example somebody will make a [[Gifset|GIF set]] and then a bunch of people will write ficlets and create fanart about it. Or someone will have a meta or a thought, and then a lot of people will respond with images or art or other things. I love this easy multimedia collaboration and the fact that you can end up with all of these different ways to get all of these conversation branches that go interesting places about the same thing. <ref> [[A Birds-Eye View of Fandom -- Destination Toast]] </ref>}}

{{Quotation| I also am fascinated by Tumblr culture and how it’s changing fandom and online interactions.  Tumblr has its pros and cons but I love how it allows for rapid creation. For example somebody will make a [[Gifset|GIF set]] and then a bunch of people will write ficlets and create fanart about it. Or someone will have a meta or a thought, and then a lot of people will respond with images or art or other things. I love this easy multimedia collaboration and the fact that you can end up with all of these different ways to get all of these conversation branches that go interesting places about the same thing. <ref> [[A Birds-Eye View of Fandom -- Destination Toast]] </ref>}}

{{Quotation2|Here is a thing that you could do in zines, and mailing lists, and Usenet, and bulletin boards, and Livejournal, and Dreamwidth. I'm talking 50 years of fandom there.

{{Quotation2|Here is a thing that you could do in zines, and mailing lists, and Usenet, and bulletin boards, and Livejournal, and Dreamwidth. I'm talking 50 years of fandom there.

Or, idk, I mean in between the the rare fandoms and squid/hogwarts castle I think I’ve become jaded.

Or, idk, I mean in between the the rare fandoms and squid/hogwarts castle I think I’ve become jaded.

{{Quotation| No, I think you’re onto something with the opt out vs opt in system. On lj you usually had to go looking for specific communities to find the weird stuff (or have a friend whose idea of a good time was asking you if you’d read the Girl Scout cookies fic yet, but in her defense that fic was genuinely hilarious ilu katie <3) which meant that aside from the occasional troll, everyone was there because they wanted to be there. Everyone was on the same page. On tumblr the tags are a big mix of every kind of content under the sun loosely bound together by a few keywords, especially now that the site’s begun automatically putting posts in the tags without user imput. Fandom can’t divide itself up into small communities based on mutual interests anymore. There’s no privacy. Add that to the way fandom trolls have hijacked sj terminology and moral purity politics to bully anyone who produces content they don’t like, and it’s no wonder fandom’s gotten less creative over the years. It’s depressing. }}

{{Quotation| No, I think you’re onto something with the opt out vs opt in system. On lj you usually had to go looking for specific communities to find the weird stuff (or have a friend whose idea of a good time was asking you if you’d read the Girl Scout cookies fic<ref>Possibly referring to [[The Epic Tale of John & Rodney, Two Girl Scout Cookies In Love]]</ref> yet, but in her defense that fic was genuinely hilarious ilu katie <3) which meant that aside from the occasional troll, everyone was there because they wanted to be there. Everyone was on the same page. On tumblr the tags are a big mix of every kind of content under the sun loosely bound together by a few keywords, especially now that the site’s begun automatically putting posts in the tags without user imput. Fandom can’t divide itself up into small communities based on mutual interests anymore. There’s no privacy. Add that to the way fandom trolls have hijacked sj terminology and moral purity politics to bully anyone who produces content they don’t like, and it’s no wonder fandom’s gotten less creative over the years. It’s depressing. }}

{{Quotation|I wouldn’t say people have gotten less creative, just more cautious about certain subjects and where they post them. I haven’t noticed changes in kink memes over the years, except that many now implement “must post warnings for these triggers in your subject header.” You still get crack fic on kink memes, you still get the more “outlandish” prompts on kink memes.  

{{Quotation|I wouldn’t say people have gotten less creative, just more cautious about certain subjects and where they post them. I haven’t noticed changes in kink memes over the years, except that many now implement “must post warnings for these triggers in your subject header.” You still get crack fic on kink memes, you still get the more “outlandish” prompts on kink memes.